DISSOLUTION OF BENZENE IN THE SATURATED POROUS MEDIA

Abstract

The aim of the present research is to study the dissolution and transport process of benzene as a light nonaqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) in saturated porous media. Unidirectional flow at water velocities ranged from 0.90 to 3.60 cm/hr was adopted to study this process in a three dimensional saturated sand tank (100 cm×40 cm×35 cm). This tank represents a laboratory-scale aquifer. The aquifer was constructed by packing homogeneous sand in the rectangular tank. The experimental results were used to characterize the dissolution behavior of an entrapped nonaqueous phase benzene source in a three dimensional aquifer model. The time invariant average mass transfer coefficient was determined at each interstitial velocity, the values of this coefficient were ranged from 0.016 to 0.061 cm/hr. It was increased proportionally with velocity toward a limiting value. The results show that the concentration of the LNAPL reduces as the distance increased in x and/or z direction from the source of pollution. In most cases the benzene concentration declines with velocity more than 2.34 cm/hr at downstream of the LNAPL pool.

Keywords

• Light nonaqueous phase liquid, saturated porous media, dissolution, transport, contamination.